Why Pfizer, Medivation, GM, and 2 Other Stocks Have Investors Talking

After surging almost non-stop to $49 per barrel from $40, WTI futures are now 2% in the red while the broader indexes are pretty much flat in pre-market trading on the first trading day of the week.

Among the stocks in the spotlight today are Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB), and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD). Let’s find out why each stock has investors buzzing this morning and see how the smart money is positioned in each of the five equities.

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M&A in the Drug Sector

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN) are each trending after the former agreed to buy the latter for $81.50 in cash per share in a transaction that values Medivation Inc (NASDAQ:MDVN) at a total enterprise value of around $14 billion. Although it is paying a premium on the deal (Medivation shares are 20% higher in the pre-market), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) anticipates the acquisition to be immediately accretive to adjusted EPS to the tune of $0.05 in the first year after the deal is closed. The acquisition will also give Pfizer a leading position in the all-important oncology market.

Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management owned 31.7 million shares of Pfizer on June 30, while Jason Karp‘s Tourbillon Capital Partners reported owning a 4.7 million-share stake in Medivation as of the end of the second quarter.

General Motors Trending Due to Lyft 

Despite investing half-a-billion dollars in the ride-sharing app, General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) apparently isn’t ready to buy Lyft yet. According to Bloomberg, Lyft has shopped itself to numerous companies in recent months, including Didi Chuxing, GM, and Uber. Of the potential suitors, many believe that GM would be the ideal candidate given the company’s previous investment in Lyft, which valued the app at around $5.5 billion. Lyft would help GM adjust to the ride-sharing/autonomous driving world and would help diversify GM’s business. Price does seem to be a sticking point, however. Lyft apparently wanted $9 billion, a price that no one is yet willing to pay. Given Uber’s dominance in the United States and Europe and Didi’s near-monopoly in China, a purchase of Lyft would not guarantee GM ride-sharing success. 65 funds in our database owned General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) at the end of the second quarter.

On the next page we’ll examine the latest concerning the possible merger between Williams Companies and Enterprise Products Partners LP.

Traders Cautious on the Latest News Over Williams 

With the start of another week, traders are keeping their eyes on Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB) and Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD) after Reuters reported last Thursday that Enterprise Products had approached Williams over a potential merger in the summer. Because the value of the offer was not disclosed and Enterprise Products ‘has not pursued the matter further,’ Williams shares haven’t rallied much on the news. Given that energy prices have firmed up due to fundamentals and OPEC jawboning, there are more reasons to own each stock regardless of whether a merger occurs or not. Although a merger between the two would help offset the negative effect of Energy Transfer Equity LP (NYSE:ETE) withdrawing its offer to merge with Williams Companies, the latter company’s value to shareholders can improve organically if natural gas prices rebound.

At the end of June, 58 funds were long Williams Companies Inc (NYSE:WMB), while 28 had bullish positions in Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE:EPD), according to Insider Monkey’s database of 749 13F-filing funds.

Disclosure: None